It's come to the end of the year - and I have to say 2015, you've surprised me. Music videos this year based their success over breaking records and millions of views, and then there was that stuff with Tidal vs Apple Music vs Vevo vs Facebook. Basically they're making you jump through more hoops and pay a toll to watch a music video. And that's no fun.

But as a salute to the year that was, here are 10 of my favourite music videos (in no particular order.) And no lie, it's a mixed bag.

It's hard to find an honest review of Star Wars. Everyone's so attached to the six episode movie franchise that to try and attempt to tarnish its name in front of hardcore Star Wars fans is like being asked to get put on a rocket to the sun.

But thankfully, I'm not a hard core fan and I don't care for the opinion of those people.

But what do you do when your friends are Taylor Swift crazy, offer that you join them in Sydney for a concert, invite you to wear a matching costume with them, and take a week off work to holiday in Australia?

If you can't beat them, then paint yourself a dress based off a Taylor Swift perfume bottle and fly to Sydney with them.

(Sponsored Post) This post has been presented by We Are What We Eat, but all thoughts, opinions and photographs belong to this blog. Read my disclaimer in full here.

currently: listening to 'I Want To Be Alone With You' by Wishes.

Despite the stormy weather in Auckland, it's almost the end of November. Which means summer is coming with its warm temperatures, holidays, fresh fruits, barbecues, Christmas parties, big gatherings... and more food!

I've already got a new favourite thing for summer eats too - the humble, always changing summer platter. It may not be a new idea but I've got a new view to it all. My friends, co-flatties Sara and Sarah, have always told me stories of the weekly Sunday Platters they put together for their movie nights. I never truly understood how amazing a good platter could be until Sara made me a version of one on a warm Saturday afternoon. And it tasted amazing - like a serving of summer.

So what better way to celebrate the arrival of summer than with a guide to putting the perfect summer platter together - dedicated to my two friends Sara and Sarah, and with inspiration and guidance from wearewhatweeat.co.nz.

It's hard to believe, but something as awful-sounding like running a 21 kilometre half marathon was good for me in the end - in body, mind and soul.

Last Sunday, I competed with thousands of Auckland runners to run a really long distance. A distance that most people would take 15 minutes to drive on the motorway - but took me just over two hours to run.

And why did I do it? Because I felt thought I needed to try to. That's the honest truth.

currently: listening to 'Something in the Way You Move' by Ellie Goulding.

I'm sorry NZFW but I have a new favourite New Zealand fashion event.

You may have noticed that this year I didn't write about NZFW like I normally do. I still attended as I did every year (PROOF!), and saw the Designer Fashion Showcase like always, but was kinda underwhelmed by the way it has been turning out. From the lack of established designers in the Designer Showcase, to the dropping designers that used to appear at the Garage Sale (no Blak!) - there were less highlights compared to the year before. The only good new points that came out of this year's NZ Fashion Weekend was a more spacious Garage Sale on two floors so it wasn't as crowded, and just a lot more selfie competitions (if you like selfies, and competitions.)

But none of that matters anymore because I have a new fashion event to love - the World of WearableArts.

My trip to Wellington had two goals in mind: going to World Of Wearable Arts, and food. Not any food in particular, but just good Wellington food we had always heard about.

But while it would take a long time to write a 'Food Tour Party' on every single location we went to, I decided to something different this time. I present to you, a 'Food Tour Party' special...

The First Ever Wellington Food Tour Party Awards

While this list doesn't completely highlight the very best of the city, it does highlight some of the best of what we did manage to eat on our four-day trip to Wellington.

Sweetest SangriaEl Horno [Te Aro]
There were quite a few places we wanted to get sangria on our first night in Wellington. But not many of those places seemed open at 8pm on a Friday... nor were we eager to wait outside till they did. We Googled for local sangria bars and El Horno was one place where it seemed cheap enough to get a jug, and also not too far away from our backpackers where we'd have to walk into the blustery night wind. Choosing to split a red wine sangria between us, the bartender mixed a generous amount of red wine, apple juice and passionfruit syrup for an intensely sweeten sangria. If you've got a sweet tooth, this stuff is for you.

currently: listening to 'Lay It All On Me' by Rudimental feat Ed Sheeran.

I think I could totally be a Wellingtonian.

I mean my hair would be a constant mess, my skin would always be too dry, and I'll never be able to wear a lot of hats - but I reckon I could happily live there.

I travelled to the Windy City with my best friend for an amazing four-day weekend away. We arrived 7am Friday, left 8pm Monday, and did everything we could in between. But it only took less than half a day to realise how much there is to love about Wellington, and how many parts of Wellington were just better than Auckland. And as someone who's a dead-set Aucklander at heart - those are big words to admit.

currently: listening to 'Ahead of Myself' by Jamie Lawson. Me watching clips from the MTV VMAs:

source: MTV tumblr

The levels of cheap, tacky and awkward from this show were astonishingly high. But then again, if the event is hosted by Miley Cyrus, has posters that look like it was designed in MS Paint (someone actually paid for these designs?!), and has Kanye winning the most prestigious award VMAs has to offer - well I guess I should have expected that.

Today is your birthday. When you turn 24 you'll wake up at 5am for some reason. Not because you're extra excited or anything, but maybe you're just wanting time to reflect on what you've done in the past 10 years of your life. You'll be surprised how fast it will be when you look back on it from my age.

I'm not going to lie to you. You thought being 13 was pretty good. But sorry, 14 will be an awful year in comparison. Just because you have become an annoying teenager who thinks she knows it all. For example, you thought 'Beautiful Soul' by Jesse McCartney was a good song. It's not. Really not.

That's what I thought to myself when I agreed to sign up for a Kikki-K workshop on 'happiness' my friend offered for me to take last month. I hadn't had any plans that week and who was I to say no to being in a room full of enviously beautiful Swedish stationery?

But to be very honest, I haven't been as happy as I wanted to be for quite a while. Maybe it's a lack of goals and aspirations, maybe it's just the frustration over circumstances I feel I can't change. But quite frankly, the only person that can be blamed for my lack of happiness is myself. Which is why I thought a 'happiness workshop' couldn't be any harm to attend.

If you've never been to a Kikki-K workshop before (I don't really know anyone who has) - it's not some place where you find a sappy circle singing or giving out each other compliments for momentary warm fuzzies. The Happiness Workshop was more about where we ourselves had control over our happiness, and what we can improve.

There were those days where we could sit around to talk about nothing, and talk about everything at the same time. I'd say something stupid, they'd say something even stupider. We'd laugh, we'd joke, we'd eat bad food and we'd do it again the next time we meet.

But sometimes "next time" never happens again. And you'd try and try, telling yourself you'd be flexible and forgiving to every failed attempt to meet - until you get so frustrated at the person you used to easily call 'friend'.

I'm not talking about anyone specific; I'm really not. But I won't blame you if that description made you bring someone to mind - because that's the stage of life I and people my age (in our mid-20s) seem to be. Past friends vs current friends vs life-long friends - who becomes whom to you? What can you do though when the friend you thought you were close to won't show up anymore? Give them ultimatums? Give them one last chance? And then another last chance when that one fails?

I always imagined a real 'Avalanche City' as a cross between Disneyland and the Smurf village. Not so much a city, but more a cute and whimsical township. Bunnies would march in ukulele bands, penguins would sail little boats, and its citizens would live in adorable treehouses decorated with fairy lights and bunting.

That's the life Avalanche City's first record painted for me. 'Our New Life Above the Ground' was a debut album that brought tunes of joy, imagination, and love in a dream-like journey. But with Avalanche City's newest release, that blissful trance has been awakened to face on something more real, confronting and "wild".

'We Are for the Wild Places', Dave Baxter's second album as the one-man band, takes a step away from the first album's distinct "folk" style. Exploring with a bigger arsenal of instruments and noise makers has helped build a more complex and layered sound that rests darker and melancholic.

Love (love, love) is still one of the biggest themes for Avalanche City but it's not as bubbly and peppy as it was painted before. The romance of relationships are written as tales of uncertainty and struggle. From the determined 'Keep Finding a Way,' to the real talk down of 'Fault Lines' where you 'just got to keep your head out of the clouds' to get through trial and strife.

Of course there is still a bubbly track or two, the most obvious heard in 'Little Fire' which brings its own warm fuzzies and the return of the perky xylophone. But the upbeat song is a small throwback to the first album's style, which acts as an encouraging little lifter between the more slower and thoughtful tracks towards the end.

The iconic track of this album is by far the single 'Inside Out'. I've loved it from first listen live at one of the X Factor NZ shows, because it's so captivating. It plucks the same three chords but is sculpted in such a way that those three chords become so effective. The ocean of sound and echo build to take you under, and the raw lyrics make you fight for breath. The emotional conflict paints a true heartbreak song crafted so beautifully.

If there could be any flaws with this album it could be the slight sense of repetitiveness between a couple of tracks with chord similarities. But those moments are far and few in-between compared with the first album.

This album is highly addictive to keep replaying, and truly does lead Dave Baxter into a new territory of music. And while I thought the musical landscape was only about the cute and whimsical, 'We Are for the Wild Places' has proven there are uncharted "wild places" within the little township that is Avalanche City. And it will surely only expand more from there.

"I was always for the failures, and we are for the wild places." - Wild Places II

The other night was my night to cook. And while prepping dinner I thought about all the excessive ripening persimmon fruit we've got at our house. So it got me thinking - how can I use this all up without having to eat it raw?

I did some googling and came across this recipe for persimmon cookies. It's the first batch of cookies I've ever made on my own, and they turned out pretty well to me. But I did adapt this recipe a little more to my tastes - a.k.a, added chocolate.

I can't say that baking is my thing, but this recipe definitely was. So to a very novice baker like myself - this was pretty much a perfect recipe for tasty, spiced chewy cookies. Easy!

I don't know if it's because I'm 23 or because it's just the year everyone wants to travel, but it's like everyone took the opportunity to go to America, or Europe, or Fiji, or Japan on holiday or their big OEs... While I'm still here in little same Auckland. And I'm not going to lie, I'm envious.

So what do you do when you're by yourself and your Facebook/Instagram timelines are filled with happy, colourful travel snaps?

I have put my name forward for the Auckland half-marathon at the end of the year, and I'm slowly training in preparation of the 21 km I'll face. But since I got a bad cold last month, I've been struggling to get back into momentum with running. Every weekend, weather permitting, I've tried to put in a long distance run but I've struggled with recovering and the winter weather. Not ideal.

So I've started being more careful about what I do on the days I run, and keeping my wellness and immunity up. Only recently I discovered that coconut water has a lot of antioxidants and is a great source vitamin C, calcium and magnesium - which I honestly wished I knew sooner before I got my cold last month! And not only that, it's a perfect sports drink - it has electrolytes like a normal sports drink but no weird neon colour.

The good people at Vita Coco gave me a few packs of their coconut water to try, and I'll be honest, I've tried coconut water in the past and did not like it that much. But Vita Coco tastes better, and tastes natural, which I think is the most important. So I've been using it in post-run smoothies to help hydrate myself and make me feel refreshed and relaxed.

If I do go for a morning run, I never eat beforehand. I'll drink a bit of water but that would be as far as it goes, because I feel eating wouldn't really make my energy levels feel better. If anything it would probably make me feel weighed down and feel a bit sickly. And then post-run, I don't like eating heavy either, because my stomach would feel a bit to sensitive to digest a full rich meal after a lengthy run. Which is why smoothies have been a great option to have for me.

Now I'll admit I don't have amazing cooking skills, but I guess this is what makes smoothies so good. You just need to have a feel for what you want and what you want to focus on. So my Vita Blueberry-Mandarin Coco smoothie has all I need. I love blueberries, and they're great for antioxidants. Mandarins are perfect for vitamin C but not too rich with citrus flavour, and of course coconut water for a fast and natural refresher.

Vita Blueberry-Mandarin Coco Smoothie

1 glass of Vita Coco (ideally cold)
1 large handful of frozen blueberries. (I usually make it about 3/4 of a cup.)
1 small sweet mandarin (seedless of course. )
1 half of a banana (for extra sweetness. Can be fresh or frozen.)

All you need to do is blend it all together until it's well mixed, then serve immediately! Frothy on top, sweet and easy to drink underneath.

Usually one glass of Vita Coco is enough for me to settle my empty stomach, and prepares me for proper meals later on too. I honestly need as much help as I can get when it comes to running, and there's no way I'll be turning to neon blue sports drinks. If something is that colour, it can't be good for you.

I'm going to try and do this running thing as naturally as possible.

[this post was sponsored by Vita Coco who gifted me their product to talk about. all opinions, photos and recipe are still my own.]

If you overlook the plants and palms on the corner of Galway and Commerce Street, you may be able to spot the birdcaged red neon sign for Xuxu, Britomart's modern dumpling bar. Located opposite sister restaurant Cafe Hanoi, Xuxu's specialty is dumplings which are a fusion of Asian tastes and western ingredients.

I'm not lying when I say I'm a true dumpling fanatic. I've spent years eating good traditional dumplings at various yum char restaurants over the world (well Auckland and Malaysia). No other dumpling tastes as good as a well-made har gao (prawn dumpling) or siu mai (traditional pork dumpling). And I've learnt the homemade art of dumplings from my mum's most delicious homemade potsticker dumplings. My dumpling standards are high, so this specialty dumpling bar had a lot to prove.

At the Cannes, people should be talking about actors, and directors, and the films that will set the tone of the year. But nope, people are talking about high heeled shoes.

If you haven't been following the news, the Cannes Film Festival has come under fire for banning a group of women from the event - because their lack of high heels meant they weren't 'dressed well enough.'

"Organizers are facing an angry backlash after a group of women were reportedly denied entry to Saturday night's world premiere of Carol—starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara—for not wearing heels. The guests—believed to be in their 50s, some with medical conditions—were wearing "rhinestone flats", Screen magazine reports, which they were told weren't appropriate."- Harper's Bazaar

Since then, a bunch of people have come forward to say how they were refused entry, including the wife of a director and an one-legged producer. And actress Emily Blunt, who has worn heels on red carpets hundreds of times, weighed in the debate to say at a press conference:

“Everyone should wear flats, to be honest. We shouldn’t wear high heels. That’s very disappointing, just when you kind of think there are these new waves of equality.”

There is some truth to what Emily Blunt is saying. In the year 2015, why are people, who are guests to an invitation-only event, being treated unequally because of some footwear? Especially when that's unfair to expect a woman with one leg, or older women with bad ankles to balance in a pair of heels.

But it's more than just creating a blanket rule that "everyone should wear flats." It's the fact that the rules for semi-formal dressing is defined so strictly that 'men wear suits, women must wear dresses and heels.'

Google 'Ladies formal shoes' and you'll get a range of answers. You'll get black heels, or brogues, or flats, or wedges, or shoes that honestly defy all gravity. Fashion is forever changing and there are hundreds of thousands of options available according to Google - and yet our mindsets, or at least the mindsets of those working at Cannes, have been caught in the idea that for a female, a dress and the size of a heel are the measures of acceptability.

If you're going to enforce such a ridiculous rule too, why stop at high heels? Let's have men all clean-shaven, only wearing a certain type of black shoes, have the women show no cleavage, have full length dresses, no sparkles, no outrageous colours at all cause that's just unbecoming, and oh wait - I seemed to have walked back into the 1800's.

So if Emma Stone can wear a pantsuit to the Golden Globes this year and look good doing so, why can't an actress wear a nice pair of flat shoes to Cannes? If it makes her feel confident and powerful, in the same way a stick of red lipstick or a good looking dress can - then more power to them. Will it belittle the prestige of the Cannes Film Festival if a woman appears in rhinestoned flats?

If you were like me and disappointed by the overloaded celebrity filled Taylor Swift music video, then there wasn't anything else that was that interesting about the Billboard Music Awards. One Direction had a wah on about Zac or Zane who left the band, Sam Smith said an entire speech via cue cards, and Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift had a pretty tight cuddle after every award she won. Cool, now you're caught up. Time for the fashion.

currently: listening to 'This Ain't a Love Song' by Scouting for Girls.

So this is what I know about the Met Ball:
1) People get all fancy dressed and red carpet up a set of stairs.
2) People punch up Jay Z in an elevator
3) it's another place where Kanye West and Anna Wintour look like the most bored human beings on the entire planet.

This year's Met Gala was to the theme of 'China: Through the Looking Glass'. Which some people took literally - whether the China part, or the looking part. Here's the most memorable looks from the Met Gala red carpet.

Demi Lovato's first concert in New Zealand and first spoken words to her Kiwi crowd, and it's about telling her fans to back away from the front.

"Otherwise they're going to have to stop the show because you guys are getting really excited, but I'm concerned for y'all safety," she shushed the audience. "Calm down, I'm serious."

To put it plain and simple, Demi Lovato fans are nuts. And apparently Kiwi "Lovatics", as they're called, are the most passionate in Australasia as I was told that Demi's NZ show had the best ticket sale response compared to any of her Australian shows. You could see it too - fans everywhere were rocking Demi shirts, Demi signage, Demi bags, Demi-everywhere.

It's a bit unfair to call Ricky Martin some sort of 90s has-been. Because in reality, Ricky Martin has a very successful career that includes a couple of FIFA anthems, a pretty decent TV gig as a judge on The Voice, and if you Google him, he was once named King of Puerto Rico.

But when you're a 23-year-old New Zealander who's only been exposed to the classic 'Livin La Vida Loca' as a child, that's what sticks in your memory the most. To me, Ricky Martin is 'Livin La Vida Loca' and 'She Bangs' and that other song that goes "Here we are! Ole Ole Ole". And that's what made me excited to go to his concert - it was a way to relive those classic tunes and moments.

For fourteen years Japan Day has been running in Auckland as an annual event. But last weekend was the first year I've ever heard about it. And I had to go.

I honestly love cultural days like these because it's so much fun to get immersed into something different. And when I say immersed, I really mean 'stuff my face'.

Japan Day, held this year at The Cloud Queens Wharf and Shed 10, featured everything Japanese you could think of - from samurais to sake, okonomiyaki to origami. After making our way through traffic and finding a working ATM in the CBD, Boyfriend and I made our way to Japan Day at peak lunch time, and I was starving.

The worst thing about cultural festivals is queues. Especially when you're hungry. Because no matter what food queue you jump into, it will always be a long wait. Boyfriend and I tend to strategically tag team for food, always sharing and jumping in separate queues so we get more food at once. Between us we got takoyaki, karaage chicken, pork buns, omoniyaki, and udon noodles. I've never had half of those foods before but I enjoyed every one of them.

For example, (from left to right) takoyaki is like fried wheat snack balls with octopus meat. A bit like a rice meatball, the sauce they have on it really makes it delicious.
Omoniyaki is basically a type of pancake or omelette that has a similar sort of sauce to takoyaki, but is more filling with vegetables and bits of fried seafood.
Karaage chicken is the equivalent of KFC but a thousand times nicer,
and of course you can't beat a classic pork bun to fill you up.

After we had our full from these savory foods, Boyfriend and I went searching for some good Japanese desserts when we laid our eyes on mochi and the rice pounding demonstration. If you don't know what mochi is, it's a soft rice cake, made out of white rice.

Boyfriend and I are usually used to dessert mochi and were hoping it could be filled with maybe red bean or sesame. So we waited in queue as we watched the live demonstration of rice pounding where other members of the public tried their hand with the mallet. Pounding rice is not as easy a job as you may think. Freshly cooked and very hot rice is kneaded by one person while someone bashes a heavy mallet into it for many turns at a time, and each batch seems to take about half an hour before its perfect mochi. Once cooled it then gets rolled into balls and covered in rice flour ready to eat.

Unfortunately Boyfriend and I hadn't expected the mochi to be one decent sized ball of plain rice without any filling (see the first photo above). And while I decided to go for the soya sauce and nori sheets to make it more exciting, after all the savory food we had, we were suffering.

We decided to take a break from our search for dessert and check out the stalls inside. In Shed 10 and the Cloud were all sorts of exhibition stalls and shops showing all sorts of interesting Japanese activities. Bonzai trees, ice sculptures, Japanese calligraphy, cooking lectures, and even a place to buy a full traditional Japanese outfit. Not to mention the people dressed in cosplay. You forget how much the Japanese culture embodies outside of amazing food.

Boyfriend and I had a good look around at all the stalls and decided to watch the stage while we waited for the day's big raffle draw to be held. We watched these fantastic Taiko Drummers (Japanese style drumming with the massive drums) who were both so immersed into the deep rhythmic beats, it was amazing to watch. And the way the drummers battled with each other with their waterfall drumming reaction - it really was exciting.

After finding out we didn't win the free trip to Japan in the big raffle, Boyfriend and I did our final wander around before we decided we could fit in dessert before leaving. Out of a choice of smoothies, vegan cake, a "Japanese-style crepe" (whatever that was meant to be) or this little food stall selling fresh pancake sandwiches; we chose the latter because it felt the closest to an authentic Japanese dessert.

Called 'imagawayaki' (I did some research after for the proper name), these little desserts were made on a pan similar to a muffin tin, but shallower, and made with two halves sandwiched with filling in the centre. They had offered fillings like red bean, black sesame, custard, "cookie" which was literally a whole oreo, and an alternative savory 'tuna and mayo' version which we decided we would pass on.

This one guy operated this spinning cooking platform and it was unfortunate the cooking platform itself was so small and slow at cooking, because this queue was the longest food queue I had ever been it. From getting into the queue, till finally getting our order - 1 1/2 hours. 4.30pm - 6pm. And it was flipping cold wind for my inadequately thin cardigan.

Why did Boyfriend and I choose to wait so long? Two reasons - 1) we really wanted dessert. 2) We wanted something that actually was a Japanese dessert and not a "Japanese-styled crepe."
and 3) because by the time we were getting a bit anxious about it being 5.30pm and barely moving in line, you feel it's a cop out to get out of the queue after waiting so long.

So we waited. And waited. And tried to keep ourselves warm in the cold southerly air, until we finally got the four flavours we picked (and in that time I was so thirsty I got myself the second to last mango smoothie). I would have taken a photo of the little imagawayakis which were just slightly bigger than biscuit sized, but Boyfriend and I got a bit too excited to start eating it while it was hot and fresh. They were sweet, cute, and I loved the red bean filling the best. Was it worth 1 1/2 hours waiting? Maybe not, but at least it was only $2 each.

But honestly, despite long queues, giant mochi rice balls, and not winning the raffle for the free trip to Japan, I seriously do enjoy events like this. To see a snippet of another side of the world all compacted together in a space in Auckland is exciting, and worth immersing yourself into. The Japanese culture is fun, full of life and includes so many elements you forget even exist - if only Japan could last for more than a day in Auckland.

So I had no idea MTV Movie Awards were on today. Everyone was busy talking about Coachella and Ed Sheeran and that new Lip Sync Battle show that this seemed to have slipped most people's radars. And as far as I know, nothing that interesting happened during the MTV Movie Awards. John Green was all excited, Vin Diesel sang, and Robert Downey Jr was all cocky Robert Downey Jr in front of the other Avengers. Nothing too memorable.

But, as I normally do, I had a flick through the red carpet fashion and it's kinda like seeing a more casual version of the MTV VMAs, or a dressier Teen Choice Awards. There's just so much to say about the fashion, guys, the fashion.

First off, I'd like to start by giving an award to someone who looks like the Generation's Reese Witherspoon, because she always looks flawless and doesn't seem to age.

Brittany Snow. Do you know she's 29? I swear she's been playing teenager roles for more than half her life now.

Weirdest Dress Weaving (because I don't know if I really like it or not...) had to go to this person here:

The collar of Bella Thorne's dress reminds me of some sort of sea coral. And the front of her dress, whatever that weird blue thing is, only reminds me of Fonterra's logo.

Most Unexpected Outfit Award was a surprising pick:

Amber Rose, because she actually wore clothes that covered something. I mean the dress is probably pulled a bit too tight but the fact there's something pulling tight other than strategically placed tassels or chains is an improvement from anything else she's worn to award shows this year.

On the opposite side of surprises, the underwhelming, Best Looking Pajamas go to:

Jessie J. Just look at her sparkly PJ set.

There weren't many couples on the carpet, but there was one memorable, Best Looking Couple:

Mark Ruffalo and daughter Bella. Because Dad and kid combos are adorable that I'll even look past the Vans.

And Best Pantsuit which honestly feels like the regular category of 2015, only needed to go to one person.

Scarlett Johansson is styling herself how people like Jane Fonda should do it. I don't know if that's insulting Scarlett or Jane Fonda but that collar detail is fantastic.

Now, as we get to the nitty gritty of it all, here are my Worst Dressed Female Nominees:

Hailee Steinfeld for involving every type of textured material she could think of. Lace boots, sheer top, ruffled front, mesh skirt... too much.Victoria Justice for wearing an outfit that looks like it was stolen from Ariana Grande or a Dancing with the Stars contestant - what kind of shape is that meant to be.Charli XCX. I've realised now she looks like a cross between Lorde and Lady Gaga. But the fact is it wasn't raining on the red carpet and her colourful jacket dress is more suited to weather at a UK event.

But in the end, Worst Dressed Female goes to...

Emily Ratajkowski, for proving just because you're good looking doesn't mean you can get away with wearing anything. This included her confused bright green cocktail dress/bejewelled bikini top. Not all contrasts are complimentary.

The Best Dressed Female nominees are...

Katie Stevens, in this adorable white studded dress.Rebel Wilson for rocking a dress with a cape on the carpet. Bonus points for the pop of colour.Cara Delevingne for her gothic purple lace thing which would look ridiculous on a lot of people, but annoyingly suits her really well.

But for Best Dressed Female I had to pick this adorable and well tailored dress from a girl I've never heard of before:

No idea where Holland Roden is from but her structured well-cut dress is both modest, classic and playful all at once. With on point make up and hair, and that subtle sneaky blue heel is that perfect bit extra.

And if there had to be a Lady Gaga award,

Bai Ling. Well a red carpet ceremony doesn't feel complete if one person isn't dressed as a literal bronzed dragon.

currently: listening to 'You Don't Know How Beautiful You Are' by Jon Foreman

When I was a child, I wanted to be a writer. Other kids wanted to be sports stars, or singers, or horse riders, or vets, but for me, I had the desire for a nerdish and unglamorous lifestyle as an accomplished writer.

The desire to put thoughts into words into sentences into stories, was a skill that many attempted at, but didn't always beautifully succeed with (I included). But to be a writer meant your thoughts into words into sentences into stories became an influential power. The thoughts of a writer are captured in time and then into the imaginations of men.

I grew up with library books, papers, and diaries I filled up to every last page. For years I challenged myself to read Ann M. Martin's entire 'The Baby-Sitters Club' series, then into my teenage-dom I began moving onto more deeper, darker stories. I wanted books that would take away the need for sleep and keep me up until the morning came again. But as I got older, finding books like that seemed harder to do.

It's been almost a month since I last blogged about my "running decision" - which to be fair isn't as much a decision, but now a test of survival. The 8.4km Round the Bays event is this Sunday in Auckland, and I can say that I have trained for it this past month.

But of course I use the words "train" very loosely.

I think the only thing that motivates me to run every few days is that, one: it's one way to visit my favourite beach, two: it gets me away from the computer and enjoy some fresh air, and three: I'm scared of passing out during the race. The thought of being "that person" being carted away on a stretcher has been enough to get me to put my running shoes on.

Don't get me wrong though - I'm not a fan of running and I'm not a runner. But I have noticed some things that do happen when you run. It's like understanding another culture. And it's weird.

Name the last time you saw an Asian family as the centre of an American sitcom.

In my lifetime (of 23 years), I've never been able to think of one show until Fresh Off The Boat debuted on NZ TV this month. And whether or not you are someone of Asian decent, you should still be aware why this is an iconic point for diversity in western television.

The appearance of Asian characters on western TV has always been minimal, and they're usually delegated minor roles like the strict teacher, or comedic uneducated foreigner. But for once, this show focuses outside those stereotypes onto an actual family, and it's why so many Asians are quick to watch Fresh Off The Boat. Finally there is a show relatable for Asians.

But of course, while it's a funny show, I have heard of people feeling unsure about watching it or laughing at it at the risk of 'appearing racist' to enjoy a comedy based on Asians. But there is honestly no need to worry about that. I don't find it racist, but if you do, consider these following points from someone who relates to this show in more ways you can imagine.

I love award ceremonies (well the highlights) but the problem with award ceremonies while you live in New Zealand is that from 2.30pm (or 12pm if you're watching the red carpet) there are a good four hours where you're half distracted between work and watching the award show. Award shows are ridiculously time consuming. Thank goodness red carpet galleries are easy to flick through. Enjoy the last of this month's red carpet reviews from yours truly.

The girl.

NZ blogger in the middle of life, love, the world and all that inhabits it. A web addict for radio by day; a web addict in general by night. Writing about the world, travels, food, pop culture and lifestyle.